Ukrainian Foreign Ministry demands Russia free Sentsov, Balukh
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has demanded that the Russian side release political prisoners Oleh Sentsov and Volodymyr Balukh who continue their hunger strike.
"Political prisoners Sentsov and Balukh continue their hunger strike. There is a threat to their lives. We demand that Russia release them," Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mariana Betsa wrote on Twitter on Wednesday, May 23.
The Northern Caucasus District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Sentsov, who was detained in Crimea in 2014, to 20 years in a high-security penal colony in August 2015 for an attempt to create a so-called terrorist group in Crimea.
He is serving his sentence in a high-security correctional facility known as Bely Medved (White Bear).
On May 14, 2018, Sentsov went on a hunger strike, demanding the release of all Ukrainians held in Russia and occupied Crimea.
Ukrainian farmer Balukh was arrested on December 8, 2016 in his house in the village of Crimea temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation. Russian authorities Serebrianka of Rozdolne district charged him with possession of ammunition.
In January 2018, Crimea's Rozdolne District Court sentenced Balukh to three years and seven months of imprisonment in a low-security penal colony and to a fine of 10,000 Russian rubles.
Balukh started the hunger strike on March 14, 2018, when the illegal verdict on the trumped-up case against him came into effect.
On May 15, he began to take food to avoid force-feeding.